Josie Whitehead

Poetic Laurels on the Web2007Josie’s Poems and you sure find her all over the web as you surf through the Kidsfreesouls Google Search! You will discover a treasure trove of freely available poems with attached voice recordings to both to enhance your reading of the poems and to help with the difficulties of the English language on Josie’s Poems.

A poet employs the appropriate rhythm, music and word pictures to invest his creation with beauty. And here’s Josie Whitehead, a Poet and a teacher, who enjoyed working with children and has her poetic spell on them. Her poems range from fun story poems with rhyme and rhythm which younger children especially enjoy. Even if you like Poetry, Josie’s poems are all for the young and old too!Josie’s Journey began as an English Teacher in Yorkshire, who startedwriting poetry twelve years ago and she discovered the joys of writing poetry. She is married to Mike, who make the website for the poems and she has a lovely two delightful little grandchildren. Josie offered her services as a volunteer in a local school to read out poems when she first read her poem “Mickledy-Me” who is a really naughty invisible friend. The children were too happy to interact with her about their visible friends too. She then wrote “Mickledy-Me Goes to School” and the children loved this poem too. As a result, Josie decided to go on the web and share her Poetic verses to all children round the globe. Josie says, “You don’t just want to spend your life using simple words when the English language is so packed with wonderful language. I have also written poems in completely different styles so that you can see that, although rhyming and rhythmic poems are lots of fun, there are many more different ways to express yourselves poetically. Blank verse can be great fun, Petrarchan sonnets extremely hard to keep to the rigid guidelines needed.” As such, Josie has made use of the Petrarchan Sonnet, better known as Italian Sonnet as she experiments with the same in some of her Sonnet forms. This consist of more rhymed lines than any other Sonnet. The Petrarchan Sonnet consist of an octave eight line stanza followed by a six line stanza. The rhyme scheme of the Octave is abbaabba. The sestet (six line stanza) rhyme scheme varies but often is cdecde or abcdcd. This style is influenced by Petrarch, a great Italian poet who had an unparalleled influence on world Literature who wrote more than 400 poems in Italian. Josie also is keen to use the Blank verse consisting of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Paradise Lost by John Milton is one example of a Blank Verse.Josie has wonderful word play and rhyme in some of her unique poems found in her Subject areas like World Issues (Environmentally Friendly, Don’t let the World Die, Slavery 2007 and Sept 11) as we find the concerns worldwide. You can find a wider topic area here. What impresses a reader is the vivid imagination she portrays with her keen love for children and nature as well as we see her flair of writing skills all through her poetry compositions.Some of Josie’s poems just dance across the page, some teach you some educational facts, and some, stir up a discussion in the classroom. Being a teacher, she has lot of unique ideas and Lesson Plans for use of Poetry in the classroom. She brings poetry to life in classrooms. Her Poetry style is varied and so is her subject area. She aims to teach iambic feet and trochees apart from the rhyme and rhythm, style and phonics as she has even recorded her poems to download on your ipod and or just listen Online. Josie has wonderful resources too, with Help for Teachers and Students and Help for Parents and Teachers with Literacy. A lot more for kids to make Birthday cards, links to resource sites, etc. Children can make cards with Josie’s poems as card insets.Josie has adopted the latest technology and embraced the Skype. You can introduce your Classroom to Skype by meeting Josie and listening her poetry as she reads out her creations. Children will love to meet the Poet, listen to her, interact with her and show her what they are doing. Josie is actively involved with Schools, Libraries, Literature Festivals and special events.

I believe “Knowledge without Experience & exposure is Incomplete” – I am an explorer on web and my ultimate goal is spreading Love, faith, peace & unity among human beings or people I rather meet on the web while I explore.

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